The Game
by lostchild277
Summary: Death is an inventive creature. And it never lets go of his prey. Plz give it a chance and please R&R!
1. Prologue

_*THANX TO _DHARKE_ – EXTRA HUG (forgive me that one, no disrespecting okay, sweetie?:o) ) PCWs – will we eva get rid of them? - Gave Billy lotsa sweets; Alex stole half of them though. No peach diet for him …. Hate my Alex? HATE MY ALEX?? Loool – I'd truly be uncertain if u didn't – then I'd have to rewrite everything, ;oP Smacking his head 'gainst the wall for a while, huh? See what I can do n make it 'beavable', lol _

_And FAILLE: of course any kind of review is welcome. The only thing is: if someone criticises another one's style, spelt, 'alphabetical method' as well as his/her grammar – this person should be quite perfect in it him/herself. As for u; u don't seem to know many punctuation marks – as well as u make quite a lot mistakes urself. This is no offence either. I know that I am not perfect (and surely make a lot of mistakes as well as I use a lot of strange abbreviations some might consider as severe mistakes) but as I said in my bio; since English is not my mother tongue and I've never been close to any English speaking country or state – maybe you can forgive me. I will keep on posting in it -  don't read it if it bores you to death – I didn't know it was _that_ bad though.* _

**_Chapter8_**

Billy snored happily, now and then sighing in his dream. Alex wasn't keen on finding out what it was about. He was suffering from a severe headache, part of it still related to the accident, another to all the things that had happened today. It had been a little bit too much so he was thankful for still of the night, allowing him to think it all over.

_His parents._ They had left since he had refused to see them again. Matt had tried to talk to him about it but Alex had rejected for he thought him to be the reason he was still here and so the doctor had finally let him alone.

_Carter._ His mind was still spinning, trying to find a meaning in all of this. More or less patiently, the jock had told him everything again, beginning with the day they all got to the airport for their trip to Paris, not failing to add lots of accusations and sarcastic sideswipes. Due to his information the real misfortune had started short after the crash. Everyone had tried to deal with the situation somehow. The FBI – which had sent two agents to question them right after the accident – had examined them two more times, still without any results. The only thing they thought to know for sure was that Alex somehow was responsible for the incident, thought they could not prove anything against him. Of course they didn't believe in the premonition that had caused him and the others to get off the plane – more or less voluntarily.

His next premonition had taken place after the day of the commemoration at their old school. Tod, his best friend – whom he hadn't seen during the 39 days period for his father, desperate over this other son George's death, had denied Tod to meet his mate – had held the speech. The same night Alex had been given a hint foreshadowing his death, but when he arrived at Tod's house, it had already been too late. Due to the official version the boy had strangled himself with a clothesline in the bathroom, but Alex never believed that. Carter hadn't been there himself, he just depended on Clear's information and what he had read in the newspaper or seen in the news. The little facts that had not been falsified. 

That was when the nightmares had started. Of course all of them had a lack of sleep, based on the shock they had gone through but it was nothing compared to what happened afterwards. What was still happening.

To make things even weirder – they couldn't remember anything. They would just wake up every night, scared to death, bathed in perspiration, sometimes finding unexplainable wounds on their bodies. After a while it worsened that much that as a result they didn't even dare to fall asleep at all, doing anything to stay awake.

Tod's death had been sort of the dot on the I, the icing on a cake made of madness.

Their parents had gone totally crazy about their strange behaviour, but after Tod's so-called suicide it had even increased. It had been like a mass hysteria. One after the other had been admitted to an institution. Like him. Obviously he had been at more than one. Stoneybrook had been the first one, but out of some reason he had left. Next stop; Price. He somehow must have managed to escape, just to run into a fucking car and get back to alibi-prison. 

The only one who actually didn't seem to belong to their 'group' was Larry. Though he was here out of the same reason. 

_Clear._ As for him she was the weirdest part. He sort of had a girlfriend. Geez, she was a pretty girl. He had sex with. Obviously not too bad. He considered it to be the only good thing that had happened to him within the last time.

Billy just let out another happy sigh and gradually it started to annoy him. 

First because of the sound.

Second because of the constant repetition.

Third because of Billy being able to sleep.

Fourth because of obviously having a pleasurable dream.

Fifth because he started to mumble incoherent words, his breath going faster.

Alex sent a desperate look heavenwards; he was not willing to sit here, being forced to listen to Billy having a wet dream. 

He reached for one of the thick mags beside him, glancing over to the other boy's body underneath the covers. For some wonderful peaceful moments he was quiet. Alex sighed and opened the mag and tried to focus on an article about some new special technology. Hell, what was Billy reading? This was deadly boring. He flipped through it as suddenly some sheets dropped to the ground. Bending forward to pick them up it was revealed that it was an entire mag itself. Alex suppressed laughter as he took a closer look at it. A teenage boy's second best friend – the _Playboy_. He sent a smirk towards Billy, looking down at the mag, then back to him again, raising an eyebrow. Something wasn't right. He was surely thankful for the silence, but something had caught his attention. It took him a few seconds to realize what it was. Billy was lying a bit too still; he wasn't even breathing. 

Alex jumped from his seat and ran towards the bed. A thin red line ran out of Billy's mouth. 

"_What the_- Billy?? _Billy_?? Fucking wake up!!"

Alex started to shake him and slapping his face and was almost at the door to get help as he heard Billy getting up with a moan. Swaying back and forth he tried to stand, but Alex just got to him in time to prevent him from collapsing on the floor. Cautiously he helped him to sit on the bed again. 

"Billy listen, I will just be away for a second or –" his eyes went to the alarm button at the wall in front of them. 

"NO!" Billy grabbed his arm and shook his head, then fell back onto the mattress for he got dizzy. "Don't. Please – don't."

"You scared the fucking hell outta me, man! Fuck, you are bleeding-"

"I get nosebleeds easily, no big thing", Billy replied weakly.

"Billy, it's not your –" he glanced at his face, realizing that Billy's nose was truly bleeding, "not _only_ your nose that's bleeding." He stuffed some pillows behind his back to make him sit in a more straight position so he wouldn't swallow all the blood. "Just lemme go n get one of the nurses – or Max if he's in the night shift-"

"Alex, believe me, I'm okay, there's nothing they can do. If you tell anyone what has happened I will be snowed with tranquilizers until I puke. Or die. I've been through all of that long enough to know."

"Okay, I'm no doctor, but as far as I know blood coming out your mouth could mean your lungs-"

"Relax – I just bit into my cheek somewhere on the inside, I can feel it with my tongue. That's all."

"So that shock made you stop breathing as well, huh?" 

"What?"

"Breathing. You weren't breathing for a moment – hell, I thought you just died in your sleep-" he cut off. 

"That was no really good comparison – what?"

Billy had started to palpate his chest and abdomen, wincing now and then. Slowly lifting his pyjama jacket, he revealed lots of bruises on his skin. 

"What the fuck?!" was all Alex managed to say, while Billy just lay back again, a sad, resigned expression on his face.

_*Aw, dat was lame, wasn't it? Sorry, I promise to write a better one next time. Hell, this is becoming a _book_ if I keep on writing that slowly.*_


	2. Chapter One

_*Big thanx to my reviewers: DHARKE and CHARLES KIZZIAR. A Fata Morgana? Well, maybe u use a different word for that. It's kind of an illusion. Images of things that don't exist like that on a certain place, formed through mirages, often seen in deserts and above oceans. – Wow, I can't hardly believe it, I kept my promise concerning the update-date. Basically something always gets in the way, lol *_

**Chapter 1**

Kincaid drew little circles on his jeans with his finger and yawned bored. It was in the early afternoon but after another sleepless night he wasn't in the best mood. They had been waiting for more than fifteen minutes for the second psychiatrist. The others seemed to be as listless as him. He involuntarily looked at Terry who was tying one of her ribbons as usual. She looked up but quickly away as she noticed his scornful expression. Two seconds later she risked another look towards his direction. He forced himself a smile and raised a thumb to show her that he liked what she was doing. Actually he didn't give a damn but he couldn't even stand the imagination of her being mad at him – either she yelled at him at the top of her voice which only made his headache increase or she was in a huff and didn't talk to him for the rest of the day. Both kept him from making out with her which was unacceptable. He knew he had won when he saw her smile proudly as she continued her work.

The door was opened and the discussion between Carter and Larry instantly stopped as the jock caught sight of the person beside Matt who was one of the psychiatrists. Actually his name was Dr. Matthews but he didn't insist on being called by his title like some others did. The boy that had entered the room with him was of their age, a somewhat dirty blond and had blue eyes that he now narrowed, turning his head to the boy that spoke to him.

"Fuck man, that just perfectly matches! Actually I expected you to be here a long time before me and actually instead of me at all. – Damn, thought I'd got rid of your fucking mug like forever, shithead, and now it seems like you're haunting me even here."

The new boy frowned. "Do I –" he made an undefined gesture with his hand, "should I know you?"

"Aw, what's that?!" Carter asked in a bored tone. "Faking Amnesia?"

"I honestly have no idea –"

"Aw shit, Browning, that's pathetic! Come up with something better."

"You know him?" Matt interfered. 

"Know him??" Carter gave a cold laugh, not noticing the astonished glances Matt and Dr. Cole exchanged. "Man, I been beating the shit outta this fucker since –" he stopped as Terry dug him in the ribs with her elbow. "Yeah …. I mean …. we …. kinda grew up together, uh huh. Basically all of us here did." 

The boy with the re-found name stared at the dark-haired he kinda grew up together with while him repeated the name and his address for Matt. He asked him whether he remembered this name but he didn't. The entire time in the hospital he had been sure that if only someone would tell him who he was all the memories would come rushing back to him though Dr Stanford had warned him not to consider it to be so easy. Dr Stanford. Alex was sure his jaw would be okay again soon. As well as the one nurse's hand and the other one's eye. He still couldn't explain what had come over him. Whatever it had been was the reason he now was here for. 

"Hey", the curly blonde beside Carter greeted him. "I'm Terry. Terry Chaney. We been together in Mount Abraham School since first grade – err, I mean at the same school, not _together_ like …. u know." Glancing at them he tried to find anything familiar in their faces but couldn't. 

"Hi Alex, I'm Larry St. Patrick", the boy with curly black hair, Carter had talked to as Alex had entered, said. "And I know just as much who you are as you obviously do. What's the reason for –" he tipped against his head. 

"Car crash. A black sports car that came out of nowhere is the last thing I remember."

"Don't look at me", Carter grumbled, skimming through a comic as the two girls instantly did so. "I have a damn good excuse. And I'm sure my car didn't return from the scrap press itself." 

His eyes turned to the last person sitting there. "Hi Alex." A blonde girl with a shy expression on her face said. He returned the smile, studying her features and for a moment there seemed to be a glimmer of hope in her eyes that maybe he recognised _her_, but again he didn't. 

Matt had just told him to sit down as the door opened again and another psychiatrist entered the room. _Dr Cole_ her name plate read. 

"Aw no, _finally_", Carter said sarcastically. 

"Kincaid, why don't you just –" she began but he interrupted her again.

"Well; I dunno what _you_ been told as a child but _we_ always begin the day with a friendly _Good Morning_."

"For all I care: Good Morning", she replied ironically and had to endure every imaginable welcome formula in not less than eight different languages during the next minutes.

Dr Matthews raised his hand in a soothing gesture. "I think it's enough now."

"Uh oh, I guess someone's jealous over there", Larry remarked. "I think we didn't welcome Matt seemly."

"Don't you dare!" The psychiatrist grinned. "Otherwise we gonna discuss the mental duress to greet in a four-hour extra session."

"Sorry", Larry played the peeved, "we simply wanted to be polite."

"Then prove that by shutting up", Matt gave back friendly and turned to Alex. "Don't worry, they're not as half as bad as they seem to be."

"No, actually they're even worse!" Dr Cole grumbled.

"Whose fault _that_ might be", Kincaid mumbled but she intentionally ignored him. 

"Hey!" he turned to Alex, folding his arms. "After all you _do_ remember the fucking crash don't you?"

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you listen to me? This is basically _all_ I-" 

"Naw, not that one!" he was unfriendly interrupted. Apparently impatience was that guy's biggest problem. "Talkin' 'bout the _plane_ crash. Huh, Mr Prem? Bells are ringin'?" Fixed ideas were another one.

Alex felt anger raise inside of him. "Which part concerning 'I don't remember anything except that car crash' didn't you get?"

Carter", Matt began, "I don't think this is the right time to-"

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt this dear souly here, I just wanna know whether he's aware of the fact that _he's_ the reason why I'm here!" His blue eyes had become darker and even the cold smirk had disappeared. Though he didn't know this guy Alex wasn't sure if he had survived if it had been just the two of them in this room. This from his point of view made that institution the perfect place for the jock. 

"I'm sorry", Alex started, then hesitated for a moment, obviously trying to find an excuse before continued: "but I have to admit that I don't give a fuck about your accusations. Whoever you are, don't try n blame me for your problems, man!"

Terry's hand, raised to grab her boyfriend's arm to prevent him from jumping from his chair was left useless in the air. The next moment Alex found himself smashed to the ground and a fist crashed into his face. A second later two strong male nurses tore them apart and dragged the still cursing and fighting Carter out of the room. 

"A normal day", Terry said after the door had been closed. Dr Cole had a grimly expression on her face, sure that Carter now was in the cell for solitary confinement, totally unsuspecting that Matt and the male nurses in tacit understanding considered the TV room as such. 

Alex gazed across the scene. It wasn't just that he felt terribly misplaced in here, he further doubted that this might be of any help at all. Surely the doctors would find out soon where he came from, call his parents and they would come to pick him up and get him out of here, back into the outside world. 

To a normal life. 

_*A/N: Dear reviewers: thank u soo much! I was quite surprised to find two reviewers so soon! Unfortunately I had not much time during the last week n no chance to get into the net during the last days. I hope to publish more at Tuesday, December 16th. Thanx for __ur__ patience. lc277*___


	3. Chapter Two

_*Special thanx to Dharke. I promise the day will come when I have more time again to beat u in the longest-review-contest ;o)*_

**_Chapter 2_**

Billy woke up with a jolt. At first he didn't know where he was but then gradually recognized the outline of his room. It was dark, only a light from the outside lightened up parts of the room but he couldn't say whether the source was a streetlamp or the moon. 

Cold sweat covered his body and he pulled a cover around his shoulders as he shivered in a cold breeze, coming through the open window. It was astonishing to realise that he was still wearing his streetwear instead of his pyjama. Which was unusual since a look at the watch told him that it already was 3.30 am. He must have fallen asleep after having sneaked back into the house so his parents wouldn't know that he had been out again. He could still remember the big quarrel they had about that last week and he wasn't keen on having it again. 

Asleep. 

The thought hit him with the power of a sledge hammer and he jumped out of his bed. The lamp nearly crashed onto the floor as he hit the switch. His room was just the way he had left it: his clothes lying on the ground, his desk a mess – a loud click made him jerk around and it took him a close-to-a-heart-attack-moment before he realised that it had just been his tape that had switched itself off automatically. The nervousness still didn't leave him though. His breath quickened and his heart started to beat painfully hard against his chest. For how long had he been asleep? 

One hour? 

A half? 

More? 

Or only for a few minutes? As hard as he tried he couldn't remember what time he had come home. Anything between two minutes and two hours was possible. He glanced across the room but anything seemed to be as it had always been. 

Something tickling his arm made him start again. He looked down; expecting to see a spider crawling away but there was no spider on the floor. There was no animal at all save his cuddly toy – a plushly gorilla named Mr Palmer – which looked a bit different. Dirty. At first Billy thought that he had spilled his glass with grape juice across it while reaching for the lamp but examining it further he found that it didn't even smell like sweet juice – and the glass was still standing beside his bed where he had put it. The tickling at his arm came again, stronger this time and it even started to hurt. Billy took an unnerved look at it, rolling up his black Sweater's sleeve. It was wet and a second later he knew why. A long deep cut was there – when had that happened? The blood made him feel sick and he had to sit down on his bed. The wound was deep but though close to the artery, it hadn't cut it through. He reached for a shirt and started to wrap it around his arm, clenching his teeth as he realized that there were more cuts on the other wrist as well. The usual procedure would have consisted in checking his window – maybe he had injured himself while climbing through it – but he didn't even have to get up to take a look at it. A voice inside his head told him that that wasn't the reason. It would have been too easy.

Nothing was easy and usual in his life anymore since that day, half a year ago. Billy cursed the day. He should have stayed in bed though of course he knew that nothing would have been able to keep him from getting up and to the airport. And if he had had to walk there he would have done so. Who knew when there was another chance to get to France? Okay, maybe the next chance would have been at a time at which he wasn't forced to spend hours in the same plane with incredible assholes whose only joy seemed to be to take the piss out of him or beat him up. Or both. Fortunately for Billy there had been another boy who had attracted the worst jock's attention. Unfortunately the class trip hadn't even taken place. Sure, the plane had taken off. Without them. And right now Billy wasn't so sure that he had been lucky not having been on it. Strange things had happened since then. The sleeplessness had started sometime afterwards. At first he had just lain there in his bed, awake, not able to sleep for his mind wouldn't stop rotating. It didn't matter how exhausted he had been – the sleep just didn't come to him. Mister Sandman had done a lousy job at that time. After a while his parents had taken him to a doctor who had prescribed him some tranquillizers and sleeping pills. At first they had helped. Billy had disliked the side-effects like dizziness and the numb feeling that didn't even leave during the day but at least he had been able to sleep. Then they had declined to let him have them any longer. All just because of the simple fact that one day they had found him with what they had called an _overdose_ while Billy couldn't even remember having taken more than one of it, which of course no one believed him. His brain might have worked a bit slow at that time but he was sure a hundred percent that he had never intended to commit suicide. Certainly, what he had gone through and still did was terrible, but he wasn't tired of life. Quite the opposite. 

As the bleeding had stopped, Billy stood up and walked into the bathroom to wash off the blood and hide the towel before his parents could see it for he didn't want them to make a lot of ballyhoo about it again. He already had sufficient problems. On his way to the small room next to his he racked his brains to find out what could have happened though he already was aware of the fact that he probably wouldn't succeed. Actually he never did. There was a large number of bruises and wounds all over his body and for half of them he had never found out where they had come from. The other half he had caught while trying not to be run over by a black sports car, driven by an evil werejock – as one of his friends, named Rachel, had once titled him - . It had been a nearly daily activity, then suddenly he had disappeared. The last thing Billy had seen of him was his murderous vehicle that had become acquainted with a tree. Due to rumours the jock and his girlfriend who had been with him at that moment hadn't been severely injured. Afterwards Billy had never seen them again though. The same rumours had said that he had tried to kill him and his girlfriend, something Billy couldn't believe. In his eyes that guy was not the one who would go and kill himself. He wasn't the depressive type. Though he might be crazy enough to play some of them silly games. Not to prove his courage, more to stop the boredom. But after a while he had been even bored of parking his car on the rails and waiting for the train to come. On the other hand he'd never do anything that harmed Terry who had been his girlfriend for two years and probably the only person he loved. He'd rather die than letting anything happen to her.

Billy turned the water off, reached for a towel and the first-aid kit and returned to his room. He reached for the glass with juice and nearly emptied it entirely before he opened the box. Only taking out the scissors to cut the bandages seemed to exact all of his powers. It took three attempts until he finally managed to cut a separate piece from the roll. Things became a bit blurred so he closed his eyes for a moment. As he opened them again it became even worse. Instinctively he reached for the glass to give his organism more liquid but he missed it and it fell onto the floor in slow motion. 

If he had been able to see more clearly he maybe would have noticed the white dregs that were left at the bottom. He let himself fall on the bed, unable to withstand the wish to lie down and close his eyes for just one second. The inner voice that urgently told him to fight against it was left unheard as he took a deep breath and drifted away. 


	4. Chapter Three

_Thanx to the _DHARKESIDE_. And guess what? Here's the 'real' next chappie, lol _

**_Chapter 3_**

Alex gazed across the room which he hoped to be able to leave forever as soon as his parents arrived. Thinking about them he felt scared, curious and relieved at the same time. What would they be like? Did they and he have a good relationship? What if not? An absurd thought crossed his mind. What if his parents hated him? What if they wouldn't come and get him out? That was ridiculous. He dismissed the thought though knowing that it wasn't as far-fetched as he wanted to make himself believe. 

The white walls around him gave him a feeling of being at the mercy. Whoever had thought that a sterile atmosphere like that would help anyone to feel better had been miserably wrong. His thoughts were busy with him and his family again. Due to what that Carter had said, before he had tried to kill him, he had no brothers or sisters. So he only knew the name of his parents: Barbara and Ken. And his own: Alex. Alex Browning. He repeated it several times and only because of that it started to sound familiar in a way. But it was more like another person's name – it didn't _mean_ anything to him.

"Hey shithead."

Looking up he saw Carter leaning against the doorframe, glaring at him. Alex couldn't tell for how long he had been standing there. 

"You often soliloquize? Well, my advice: don't let the psychos hear you otherwise you gonna stay here for a loooooong while."

"You just stepped by to tell me that or beat me up again? I mean the right eye still looks quite sane and builds a contrast to the left one."

"Aw you didn't lose your stupid humour, that's great", the jock replied smugly. "Though I'm afraid it won't help you much." He kept staring at Alex.

"Okay, just out of a personal interest – what is it I should of done to you?" 

Kincaid eyed him suspiciously. "You honestly wanna tell me you don't remember _anything_?"

Alex shrugged. "Why should I lie to you?"

The jock thought for a moment, obviously thinking that he had a point there. "Maybe because you know what that means for you."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Can you give me a helping hand?"

Carter smirked. "I can give you a smashing fist if you want to." 

The other one sighed unnerved. "See, this ain't of any use okay? I mean, I dunno anything bout whatever you think might have happened. And since you are _here_ I can't even tell whether this is only one of your delusions or not."

Out of nowhere a hand appeared on Carter's shoulder but he didn't even start a bit. "Hey Kincaid, found your fav whipping boy again?"

The dark-haired boy Alex had seen in the session entered the room and let himself fall onto the empty bed opposite to Alex. What was his name again? 

"Actually I thought to find you in the TV room downstairs, hiding from Cole", he said to Carter.

"Cole's left a while ago. Torture some new poor soul I bet."

"What do you expect? She's the devil."

The blonde girl named Clear appeared in the doorframe, jostling against Carter as she stepped into the room, taking a seat beside the curly one. An even more aggressive expression was shown on Carter's face but he didn't say anything. "Where is Terry?" he grumbled, looking downwards the floor behind him. 

"What do you think?" Clear blinked her eyes in an exaggerated way and pretended to put on some make up. 

"Are you mocking at my girlfriend?" Carter asked her in a low voice that augured ill. 

In slow motion the girl turned towards him, taking a deep breath as if preparing for a longer speech. "Yessss." 

For a moment it seemed that he wanted to beat her but then he just smirked. 

"This must be quite confusing for you", Clear addressed herself to Alex. 

He took a breath and made an undefined gesture, then finally nodded. 

"So you don't remember anything? Not even the crash?" 

Since the girl was a lot more friendly then the jock Alex refrained a sarcastic comment, but nevertheless wondered whether this might be a special game they played with all the new ones. "What plane crash?" he repeated.

Clear and Carter exchanged a glance. "You know, people get on board, plane takes off, BOOM, plane goes down", Carter explained as if talking to an idiot. "_Plane crash_."

Ignoring him Clear started to tell Alex about their common past [~ something _I_ will skip for I'm sure all of us already know pretty well ~] making his left eyebrow rise higher every minute. The time she had finished he eyed them as if he was expecting it to be a silly joke for April Fool's Day and that they would suddenly jump up holding neon signs with 'DUH!' on it. Which they didn't. And one look into their faces told him that this was no well performed sketch either. 

Clear gave him a moment before she continued. "Do you remember Tod?" 

Again Alex searched his mind hoping to find something, a small memory, a scene, a single picture, a face. It was useless so he shook his head. "Is he here, too?"

Carter laughed coldly. "Naw man, he's over it all if you know what I mean. He's through."

"So I suppose he's dead?" Alex shrugged. "So?"

Kincaid stared at him, honestly surprised. "_So_??"

The other one shrugged once more. "What do you expect, huh? I mean, you give me a name of someone I don't even remember and really expect me to-"

"He used to be your best friend", Clear interrupted him. "You've basically known each other like forever and you've always been that close friends until …." she tried to choose the right  words to explain to Alex what had happened but Carter did it for her.

"Until he strangled himself in his bathroom. Per-lease Clear call the things by their names."

"I was just trying to make it-"

"Aw _what_?!" he spat. "_Easier_? It's not easy at all so why should you try to make him feel so?" Carter had always been famous for his lack of sympathy but it didn't mean that Clear would ever get used to it. 

"Carter you're such a-" she began but he stopped listening to her the same moment Terry entered the room. 

Of course she was dressed up perfectly like she always was and after giving Alex and the others a short sweet smile she took seat beside Carter, who sat on the only armchair, well more or less half on him and Clear was pretty surprised to see that they didn't instantly start to make out as they usually did. 

"What are you guys talking about", she asked in an oh-so-cute tone Clear could have killed her for. 

"Oh nothing, you know, just death and damnation, nothing you can find in a make up box."

Terry put her hand on her boyfriend's as he was about to give Clear a sharp reply. "Don't take it out on me if you're tired okay? In fact you didn't notice you're not the only one who had a bad night."  

The second blonde bit her lip for she know that Terry was right. The uncomfortable silence that followed was cut as they heard a loud and quite rude male voice from the outside. For a moment they all seemed to be turned to pillars of salt then Alex could see Carter raising his head and staring at Clear, frowning. She listened for another second for the discussion in the hallway was very loud. She raised an eyebrow and mouthed a single word. Carter nodded and as if it was a special sign they had waited for they all got up and went towards the door.


	5. Chapter Four

**_Chapter 4_**

_~ Two hours earlier. ~_

"I WON'T GO THERE!"

Billy took a step back from the two men that approached him. 

"Billy", his father began in a calming voice. "This is only to your advantage. We cannot help you, but they-"

"YOU CANNOT FORCE ME!" his son yelled at him. 

It had been a real rude awakening for him this morning. At first he had considered the strange voices talking to him and somebody dragging him towards the door to be part of the weird dreams he had but then had to realize that they belonged to reality. Still drowsy from the drugs he had been unknowingly given a few hours ago he had seen two strange men standing beside him. The sudden surge of adrenalin panic had given him, had nearly thrown him out of the bed and he had put up a fierce resistance to them. At the moment they were down in the kitchen, Billy with his back to the sink, each of the men, who he had meanwhile identified as two strong male nurses, cutting off a possible escape route either to the kitchen- or the backdoor. He eyed them suspiciously but momentarily they didn't diminish the distance between him and them. Maybe it was because of the object he held in his right hand. A big butcher's knife. 

Out of the corner of his eye he could see his father taking a step towards him. "Freeze!" he said warningly, nervously playing with the knife. 

"You are not going to hurt me with this." His father's voice sounded calm and self-assured, but Billy knew him long enough to hear the slight uncertainty. "Billy, we don't do this to punish you for something – we feel helpless. We don't know what to do anymore. You-"

"What _is_ it? I – I haven't done anything wrong! At least nothing that would justify _this!" He was aware of the fact that the weapon wasn't the best way to underline this, but he had no chance. He wouldn't go where these guys wanted to take him to. _

"Your behaviour only helps to make your position worse", a female voice said. A voice that made him livid. It belonged to Dr Cole; by trade his psychiatrist since the great crash. She was the one that had persuaded his parents that he needed help. _Help. Her misinterpretation of it consisted of trying to 'cure' him with thousands of pills – not sufficient for an overdose but still enough to make him feel so tired he couldn't even get dressed himself. The moment he had seen her entering the kitchen had been the moment he had grabbed the knife. The moment she had seen him doing so had been the one she hid behind one of the musclemen, seeking protection. _

"Billy", his mother began, wiping the tears from her face. "Maybe we should-"

A glimmer of hope appeared on his face. "Mom, I promise I'll do anything, anything you and Dad want me to. I – I won't sneak out of the house again, I will s- sleep every night, I – the nightmares …. I'm sure they will stop if – Mom, _anything_. I swear I'll be a good boy! I won't-"

"I'm afraid that promises are not the solution", Dr Cole interrupted him.

Mrs Hitchcock glared at her. "This is still _my son, __Mrs Cole and I don't allow you to-"_

"It was _you_ who called me up at seven o'clock this morning if I may remind you. _You who pleaded me to come for help. And if I take a look at his wrists I just came in time."_

"I swear that I haven't a clue where this comes from", Billy defended himself. "Suddenly they were just _there. Mom, Dad, you gotta believe me-"_

His parents exchanged glances and for a small moment he thought that they might believe him and throw the psychiatrist and her two bulldogs out of the house. 

"See Billy", his mother said but her voice gave away so his father continued. 

"We really don't want to do anything bad to you. But we are so afraid something could happen to you. You cannot imagine how shocked we were when we found you with your slashed wrists this morning. We just wanted to see if you were alright after you - how we had thought - had taken the medicine last night. But then we had to see that you obviously not only had pretended to sleep and sneaked out of the house again, but had also …. See, we don't think you are doing these things on purpose just to annoy us or for some teenage rebellion or stuff – but we are also of the opinion that this is the best way to help you. It's only three days, Billy, three little days and I guess that's worth it to find out what's up with our son." 

Of course Billy understood what he put his parents through but a quick look at the psychiatrist told him that she considered it to be just that – irritating teenage rebellion, nothing more, nothing less. And as for her she was going to do her work. Like an exorcist. 

A tear ran down Billy's face and he angrily wiped it away. "You don't understand this." He tried to make his voice sound firm but couldn't avoid that it shivered. "It's not that easy-"

"It's not easy for us either, Billy", his father replied and took another step towards him. 

"Dad, I dunno what you expect but it's not like I spend three days in there and suddenly everything will be alright." 

"You are absolutely right; I guess three days won't even be enough." 

Giving the two male nurses a sign, Dr Cole took something out of her pockets. They approached him again and instinctively he grabbed the knife tighter. 

"I know that we agreed not to use this but I think it's the only way."

Billy's eyes widened in shock as he realized what it was the psychiatrist now held in her hands. She stitched the needle of the syringe into a phial, filled with a transparent liquid. He didn't have to read the label first to know what it was. It gave a little 'plop' before she started to fill the syringe. Billy shook his head. "No. NO!" 

The odds to get out of this without the injection were a hundred to one if he didn't drop the knife instantly, he knew that. But going to the loony bin wasn't a real alternative. Within a second he made up his mind and raised his hands in a gesture of defence. He looked at his parents. "72 hours? 72 hours and you will come and get me out?"

His father nodded. 

"Promise it to me", he insisted. "Both of you." 

As his parents had done so he slowly put the knife down on the table behind him gazing at the psychiatrist who was still holding the syringe but put it back into her pocket when she noticed the glare of his father. 

"Whatever you say", she grumbled, obviously not entirely satisfied. 

With a more than uneasy feeling Billy said goodbye to his parents and followed them outside to the car. Only seconds later he sat in the back beside one of the bodybuilders and watched his Mom and Dad become smaller each minute the distance between them grew as the car drove away.  


	6. Chapter Five

_*It's been a while, I know. Been busy with lots of things – and I start giving up hope my fics will ever be put to a decent end. Well, time will tell …. Big shout out to DHARKE - Fav list? (whistles sheepishly ;o) ) Not getting rid of Beaver, huh? lol - and the mysterious 'REVIEWER' – hated Dr Cole the moment I saw her alter ego on the screen – YUCK! Worse than Maggie Walsh, if u know what I mean, lol.*_

**_Chapter 5_**

_~ Present time. ~_

"YOU FUCKING HEARD WHAT MY PARENTS SAID! _NO_ INJECTIONS!" 

"_Your_ parents put you in _my_ care and as long-"

"You have enough money to pay the trial?" Dr Cole was interrupted by an orderly passing by. 

"If you want to keep this job to pay your studies, better don't interfere!" she hissed. 

The young man just smiled. "I am not afraid of you, Miss Cole. You don't manage this section. Matt does."

"Wonder for how long. And it's not _Miss_ Cole, it's _Mrs_! As for you it's _Doctor_!" She turned back to the boy she had brought here, putting the syringe back into her pocket. "Max will show you your room and explain what you need to know. I expect you to stay there until you get further instructions." With that she rushed off, slamming the door to one of the offices behind her. 

Max put an arm on the boy's shoulder and gently pushed him forward. "You don't need to be afraid of her."

"Is that the moment you tell me that she actually is a warm-hearted and nice person? That beneath that rough exterior there beats a heart of gold? For unfortunately you come about two years too late. She's been my psycho way too long." 

Leaning against the doorframe again, Carter smirked at him. "_Hitchcock_."

Instantly Billy tensed. His eyes widened in astonishment as he caught sight of the jock. They widened even more as he noticed three other familiar faces beside him. 

"Oh, the welcome committee", Max said, grinning. "Don't you try to tell me that he is another member of your freak club." Carter's eyebrow went up as he pointed at Alex, Larry, Billy and Clear. "Freaks." He pointed at himself n his girlfriend. "Terry n me. When will you ever learn, Max?" 

"Seems as if that meant lunch break for me – there is nothing you couldn't tell him. John?" Alex rolled his eyes at that, "this is your roommate. Don't do anything I wouldn't. Which contains basically everything, so skip this part. Welcome to the Pleasure Dome, Billy." Tapping him on the shoulder, he went towards the direction of the cafeteria, murmuring something to Carter as he passed him. 

"What is it?" Terry wanted to know, but he just shook his head, making her pout.

They decided to go back to Alex' room. There was a long silence, everyone staring at the others, waiting for them to start and say something.

"So, here we are. Reunited", Billy finally remarked, giving a nervous laugh. "I really wondered where you guys suddenly disappeared to but …. I never would of expected to …. find you …. _here_."

"The hotels in Paris were all booked up, so we thought we'd give it a try." Carter gave back, his face as expressionless as his voice. 

Another five minutes that seemed to last five hours went by. Again it was Billy who broke the silence. "Why did he call you John, Alex? Or was he talking to _you_?" he addressed to the curly-head.

"Nah, I'm Larry. Glad to meet you."

Unsurely biting his lip Billy gazed at the others, too confused to give a polite reply, and then stared at Alex. Though they had never been close friends, Alex had always been more or less friendly to him; therefore he wondered why he was now giving him such strange looks. "So I suppose you have a second name?" 

Alex shook his head. "No. Comes from John Doe."

"But John Doe is a synonym for people who lost their memory …." a whole lot of pennies dropped in his head, "_you lost your memory_??"

Alex gave an unnerved sigh. "Yeah, _d'uh_!! I lost my memory!! _Congrats for that_!!" Frustrated he let himself fall into the pillows behind him. 

"You don't remember _anything_??"

Alex gave him a disbelieving look. "We weren't friends, were we?!"

The other one swallowed hard, obviously hurt, but Alex wasn't in the mood to care about it.

"So, what are you here for?" Terry interfered, taking on Clear's role of playing the mediator. 

He scratched his head. "Err, flight 180 freaked me out?" he started cautiously.

"You ain't got it less precise, do you?" Carter snapped impatiently. "What is it?"

"They …. think I tried to …. kill myself. Which I didn't!"

"Of course not!" The jock snorted, but to Billy's surprise he seemed to believe him. "Okay, to shorten this – since when do you not sleep?"

"Err, a while …."

Carter got up and for a moment Billy was sure he was going to beat him up like he had done so many times before, but instead of he went straight towards the door, Terry following him. 

"Where are you going?" Clear asked frowning.

"Out. _Making_ out." He turned around, giving her his dirtiest smile. "Wanna join us?" 

She glared at him, making him smirk even more. "Thought so. In case your little coffee klatsch here results in something, give us a short report later on."

"You cannot just leave as if that wouldn't be any of your own business as well!"

"Aw honey, so you don't want any coffee?"

Clear bit on her lip and swallowed her next comment.

"I love to see you hating to depend on me", he laughed as they left the room. 

"Coffee?" Billy wondered. "Is that …. a special expression for …. _drugs_?" The naïve look on his face made the others snigger a bit. 

"I know it's quite sad, considering all the possibilities that are waiting for us in the locked medicine cabinets here", Larry said, "but it's really only coffee. Some caffeine pills actually since they don't exude such a wonderful scent real coffee does."

"U don't get _coffee_ in here??" the other one was left mouth open.

Alex gave him a pityingly look. "Since I suppose that we are here out of the same reason – is that a rhetorical question?"

"Why are you so irritated?"

 "Hell, I dunno! Since everything is just so fine!" Again Alex rolled his eyes, plainly showing that he thought Billy to be quite dim. 

There was a knock at the door and only a second later Matt's head appeared in the crack.

"What are you doing here – ain't got no home?" Larry remarked, grinning.

Matt returned the smirk. "Well, actually I am looking for some young people, also known as my group whose session started about five minutes ago." He took a look around. "Where are the two turtledoves?"

"Billin' n cooin'", was the answer.

"Aw. So I hope they are not using the TV room for I saw Dr Cole just going into that direction a few seconds ago", Matt gave back, noting the shock on the other's faces with an even brighter smirk, not knowing, what it really was about.


	7. Chapter Six

_*'Entendez, classe, qu'est ce que c'est l'announce?'__ Just a short warning at the beginning that this chapter might be a bit corny. Couldn't help, lol*_

**_Chapter 6_**

The session was as boring as the last ones for they still didn't make any progress. Cole killed every opportunity to create an atmosphere of trust by her hard and scornful comments and though out of different reasons Kincaid was only so willingly to help her. Basically they could skip all of those sessions, because they never got even close to the _real_ problem. Alex had a feeling that the other ones would be more willingly to talk with her being absent, since they had faith in Matt. Admittedly, the whole thing sounded quite silly and unbelievable in general. 

After having listened to a few things Billy said, Alex just mentally released, thousands of thoughts running through his mind. 

Since it was Wednesday, it only lasted one hour and there was a sigh of relief going through the room as finally it was over. As he wanted to leave the room, Alex was held back by the young psychiatrist. "I have some good news for you." 

Alex, still tired to death though Carter had given him more than the regular dose of caffeine pills, suddenly felt a glimmer of hope run through his head. "You found my parents?"

Matt nodded as if he was Santa Claus himself and Alex a six year old boy, receiving his favourite present. "They are going to be here in a few hours."

"Why did it take so long to find them?" Alex replied, not sounding as half as happy as one could have expected. 

"Well, it's actually a bit strange." Matt shrugged. "Well, don't ask me. Some police officer's fault, I guess. You know, bureaucracy."

"It was a simple phone call."

"Alex, stop asking me a hole in the head, okay?" the other one laughed. "You can ask themselves later. I mean you act as if they wouldn't of been _liked_ to be found." Catching Alex' look he faltered for a moment. "_Alex_!! You don't honestly believe that, do you?!" 

"Of course not." It didn't sound convinced at all as he started to move towards the door, leaving a speechless doctor behind. 

He just entered his room, which had become their constant meeting point, hearing Carter say: "Okay, so that means nightshifts again."

"Nightshifts?" Billy shrugged.

"Always two of us in a room – one will stay awake while the other one takes a rest. Which means you won't even go n piss as long as JD is sleeping."

"Why can't I sleep first?" was his next question, causing Alex to let out a helpless moan. 

"Of course you can have your beauty sleep first, you baby", he answered, strongly pulling himself together to keep him from smacking the boy's head with the remote control. The constant gnawing in his stomach he was feeling since he had woken up in the hospital, rapidly increased since what he had just been told.

"What did Matt want from you?" Carter wanted to know, getting a despising look.

"Why the hell should I tell you of all people?"

Carter laughed, shrugging as if one option was as good for him as the other. "I can also beat the truth out of you."

"Carter", Terry reprimanded him giggling, but Alex didn't care about her.

"And then?" he asked.

Carter frowned. "What _when_?"

"_Then_. You beat the shit out of me. And then? You beat me up again? You even threaten to kill me? Really; I'm scared to death, Van Damme." The way he said it showed that it was just the other way round. It wasn't that he wasn't aware of the fact that it wouldn't mean a great effort for Carter to turn his words into actions, more that he didn't really care. 

"You like playing with your life, don't you?" The smirk on Carter's face hadn't changed, but his voice had become a whole lot of degrees colder. He could feel the old anger against Alex boiling up in him again. And someone had just added a few drops of Tabasco. 

"Carter!" Clear admonished him. 

"You stay out of this, weirdo!" he snorted.

"Hey! This is a thing between you and me okay?" Alex yelled at him. "So stop insulting _her_!"

"Aw, _sweet_. At least you seem to remember taking care of your girl", the dark haired jeered. 

As the meaning of the words hit Alex' brain he raised an eyebrow, eyeing Carter as well as Clear suspiciously. "What?" He searched for Clear's eyes, but she was too busy with glaring at the jock, her cheeks flushing with a deep red. "Are we …. together or stuff?"

Clear shook her head, unable to return Alex' look. God, this was _so embarrassing_ …. 

"What is this? Your sick sense of humour?" 

"Nah, you weren't really _together_", Terry decided to help. "Though I must admit that there seemed to be something going on." 

An angry scowl was the other blonde's reaction to her last sentence, but Terry didn't really mind. "C'mon Clear, one day  he's gonna remember it anyway." 

"As long as I don't would someone be so friendly to _tell_ me?!" Alex mood worsened each second that went by. 

Instead of an answer Terry got up, pulling her reluctant boyfriend to his feet as well. "I guess you should clear that alone", she said. Giggling at the wordplay, she indicated the others to leave the room with them. 

"Aw I wish there was a surveillance camera in here and we could watch the tape later on", the two who were left back heard Carter say before the door was closed. 

* * *

It was so embarrassing. Just _so_ embarrassing. None of them could remember anything as embarrassing as that in their lives. Well, actually Alex couldn't out of a different reason. His firt intent was to run out of the room or lock himself in the bathroom. Or he could simply reach for one of Billy's mags and pretend to read until Clear left. This really was the last thing he needed. 

"May I offer you to join me killing Carter?" The girl asked after a while. 

"Anytime", Alex nodded emphatically. They shared a snigger and Alex decided to just ask her quite frankly. 

"Okay. So just to get that done – is there anything I should know concerning us? Even if it's just for the next time the asshole's in the mood to piss me off with one of his jokes."

Clear obviously tensed up. "Weeell, u know, there was that crash ….", she bit her lip before continuing, "Okay. You never noticed me in school or so. But after the crash …. you remember what I told you about that _connection_ I felt towards you?"

He nodded.

"It didn't diminish since that night, on the contrary. Then, when your friend Tod died, it wasn't that I _knew_ what had happened, like you do with your premonitions. I only …. _felt_ you would be there out of some reason. And that you might need help." She pushed a strand of her blonde hair from her face to hide her nervousness. "From that day on you –" she sighed, trying to find the right words, "you started to listen to me, talk the whole thing over. You came to my house; we sneaked into the morgue, we – nothing even close to a relationship so far."

"So we never kissed?" Alex pretended to pout. He felt a lot better since the others had left. And he was sure that it couldn't only be put down to the fact that Carter had left as well. It was more Clear's calmness. Though she was quite nervous now – he couldn't explain; her presence still somehow soothed him. 

Instantly Clear blushed, avoiding any further eye contact with him during the next minutes. 

"So either it was quite bad or I was wrong in the first place", he joked, then it suddenly hit him with the power of a sledge hammer. "Oh my God, I mean …. did we even do _more_ than kissing?"

If Clear had thought her face couldn't get any more red or burn she was now proved to be mistaken and that was answer enough.

Alex was totally taken aback from these new insights. He wished he could say _something_, but all he could do was just sit there and stare. It must be horrible for Clear, a lot more than for him; God, he didn't even _recognize_ her. 

"When  - I mean where – how ….", he stumbled, then sighed. "What I'm trying to say is: what – happened? You don't have to give me details about – err, you know what? I'll just shut up." He rested his head against the wall behind him, considering smacking his head against it until he blacked out. 

Clear sniggered. 

"Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

She raised her eyebrows and said in a happily tone: "Oh hi Alex. You remember me? We shagged on the beach that night you nearly got killed again. Want some coffee?" She screwed her nose. 

Alex grinned. "So – we had that one night shag and that was it?" then frowned. "Why?"

"At first I thought you just didn't call cuz you weren't interested in more – then I found out that you were sent to Stoneybrook after, how Carter called it 'you totally freaked out over Tod'. I tried to see you there but your parents wouldn't let me for some stupid doctor had told them it would be better if you weren't seeing anyone from crash down day. Oh", she added, seeing his confused look. "Stoneybrook is an institution like this one here." 

"So – what happened then?" 

"I really dunno. You know – it's hard to search for info in here."

"Since when are you here then?"

"About one year. My nice _guardians_ took it as a welcome opportunity to get rid of me, telling the youth welfare department they were oh so afraid I might harm myself since I was so traumatized." She snorted with rage. "Damn, I been traumatized since the day I first met them!"

"Your parents –"

"Dead", Clear quickly said. 

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that." Inwardly he sighed at his lame words. 

"Any news bout yours?"

"Yeah. Gonna see them in a couple of hours." He felt his throat getting dry. 

"Really? That's great! - You don't sound very happy …."

"Dunno." Of course part of him was looking forward to it, but his stomach started to cramp just thinking about it. And it was nothing like that butterfly feeling. 

The door was almost opened the same moment they heard a knock on it. Two heads appeared in the crack. 

"Are you pouncing on each other or can we come back in?" Billy wanted to know.

"Can we come in even if you do?" Larry grinned.

The other ones shrugged, exchanging unsure glances. 

"Show some compassion, guys", Larry moaned. "We left Carter and Terry making out in my room, the girl's room is totally contaminated by clouds of hairspray and perfume, the TV room gets cleaned, we are not allowed to go outside, the session room has such a bad aura and – as u might understand even hanging out on our beautiful grey floors loses its great attraction when Cole steps by all of the time."


	8. Chapter Seven

_*Aw so sorry, but this is gonna be _quite corny_ again. Listening to music by Linkin' Park and Papa Roach all of the time has a strange effect on me. I am inspired to either write corny or killing stuff – don't worry, the last is upcoming soon. I only never expected all of this would take so _long_.*_

**_Chapter7_**

Later this day Max stepped by to take Alex to Matt's office, where his parents were waiting. It sent a stabbing pain right through his body thinking about facing them just in a few seconds. Hell, he didn't even remember their _faces_. As to him they were two complete strangers. Maybe everything would change the moment they took them into their arms, telling him that everything was alright now. Take him back home. 

_Home_. 

Wherever that was. 

Matt just stepped outside his office as they arrived, giving him an encouraging smile. 

"What-?" Alex wanted to know, but he was interrupted. 

"I guess it's better to meet them alone. Anything like making this feel like a session might only get you unnecessarily excited. As well as them. Don't worry, I'll be just here, outside. _Go_." With that he shoved the boy into the room, cautiously closing the door behind him.

Alex felt trapped. Beside him there were two more persons in the room, standing in front of Matt's desk, looking at him obviously as nervous as himself. He stared at their faces, getting more frustrated each second as he couldn't find anything familiar in them. Geez, what had he expected? That there would be a loud _BANG_ and suddenly everything was perfect? They would fall into each other's arms and live happily ever after?

Admittedly, part of him had.

His mother was the first one to move. She took a few steps forward and then hugged him with a desperate sigh. Her arms wrapped around his body, light at first, then stronger. As if it had been a sign his father had been waiting for, he pulled them both into his arms, giving Alex the feeling of being choked to death. He started to feel really uncomfortable. Maybe he wasn't the tender guy; he forced himself to hold still for he didn't want to destroy the moment since his parents seemed to be very pleased to see him again. His mom mumbled incoherent sentences into his hair and he could tell by her croaky voice that she was crying. 

"Give him some air, sweetie", he heard his father whisper softly and she reluctantly obeyed, pulling her son to the sofa. As they sat down she still wouldn't let go of his hand. 

The uncomfortable feeling didn't diminish. Alex longed to remember anything, a tiny little childhood memory, _anything_. But his mind had different plans. 

"How are you? God, honey, you can't imagine how happy we were when we finally got the call that they had found you!" His mother sobbed.

"What happened?" Alex wanted to know, feeling relief that he would finally find out. 

"What is the last thing you remember?" his father asked.

Alex shrugged and summed up: "The accident. Headlights out of nowhere, _ka-boom_, asphalt, bad headache, blackout. Before – blackness."

"Blackness?" his mother asked confused.

"Nothing. Monster-blackout."

For a moment none of them said a word. Of course his parents had been told that he was suffering from amnesia, but he supposed they had shared the same hope; that somehow it would sort itself out when they met. He knew he was right as his mother swallowed hard. 

"_Nothing_?"

Again he shook his head. 

"I'm sure the memory will come back", his father assured.

"I guess so, too. As soon as I will be home, in my usual environment, I will …. what?" The quick, almost shy glance his parents exchanged, hadn't escaped  his attention. 

"What?" he repeated.

His father cleared his throat. "Well, uhm , we …. the doctor thought it would be better if you stay here for another while and-"

"WHAT?!" Alex felt like having a bad dream.

"Don't get upset, Alex. You – God, how am I supposed to tell you that – you-"

"Fucking get me outta here!" he burst out. This wasn't only a bad dream, this was a fully grown _nightmare_. 

"Alex! Calm down! It's not so easy – "

"It's FUCKING easy! I grab my bags n we get out! That's what you came here for, wasn't it?" He stared at his mom. "WASN'T IT?"

"Alex", she began, "we …. oh my God, when you ran away from the Price Institute we thought we had lost you forever. We almost thought you were dead – no one was able to find you. We thought you might have done something to yourself- "

"Why the fuck should I _do_ that??"

"Do you remember Price?"

Her son tried to focus his thoughts on that name for a moment. Clear had mentioned something like Stoneybrook. But Price? He shrugged.

"We sent you there – one evening. Oh my God, Alex, you totally", Mr Browning searched for the right words, "blew your top because of Tod and all the things that had happened. You were absolutely persuaded that something was _after_ you. We had found all the drugs in your drawer to get you high – you hadn't slept for _days_ – we just didn't know what to do anymore. So when Rory, you know, Rory, he's a medic and …. he gave us the address and number and desperate as we were, as we saw _you_ were –" he stopped, looking at him to find some comprehension. Something his son wasn't willing to give. 

Instead of he just stared at him blankly. "You …. you sent me there …. like ….you called some guys _you didn't even know _to take me to a place _you never heard of before_ …. was that the only possibility to get rid of me?"

His mother gasped, obviously hurt by his words. "Oh my God, Alex, don't you say such horrible things, honey, we didn't want _to get rid of you_, it's –"

Alex drew back from her hand. A sudden feeling of deadly rage rushed through him. Like something he had felt before – out of the same reason. But he couldn't exactly remember, there were no pictures from the past in his mind that showed him what had happened. So he depended on what his parents told him, two people he had thought a while ago to be the only persons that would never let him down. The same two people he right now never wished to see again. He got up.

"Alex, where do you want to go?" Ken Browning asked. 

"I think I need some fresh air", he snapped.

"Alex _please_, this is just where we stopped last time!" his mother pleaded. "Don't let it all happen again, darling."

"Or what?! In case you might not have noticed it seems I already _am_ in the loony bin so there's nowhere worse you can send me now to punish me! Jail maybe though. But whatever I did to you, don't you think that grounding me for two weeks would of have been enough? Did you really have to exaggerate it like _that_?"

"See, it wasn't as easy for us as you might think", his father began to explain while his mother swallowed hard to suppress her tears. "We just didn't know what to –"

"AW, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" his son yelled and grabbed the handle. 

"_Alex listen_-" his father began in a  more severe tone. 

He swung around. "No, _you both_ listen!! I don't give a fuck about explanations, okay?? I just don't care bout anything these guys here are trying to talk me into nor bout what Matt or this slut Cole say and I surely, damn 100 percent _don't_ give a shit on what the two people have to tell me that are just fucking responsible for _me being here at all_!!" He opened the door so powerfully that it crashed against the wall behind him, making the middle glass part rattle. 

"I told you it might not be the best idea", Barbara Browning murmured as her son had left them.

"So now it was _my_ plan!" her husband said in a bitter voice but then hugged his wife instead of further arguing with her. "He's gonna be alright, you will see. It's only a matter of time and everything will be as good as it was before the whole thing started. You will see."

Meanwhile Alex had nearly knocked over Matt as he stormed out, telling him to stay the fuck away from him. Matt shook his head as Max made a move to follow him. "Give him some time", he said and turned around to enter his office. 

Alex  went straight into the TV room, hoping not to find anyone in there. And fortunately he wasn't disappointed. At least not for fifteen minutes. Then the door was opened.

"Oh, still here?" The dark haired boy smirked. "Mommy n daddy didn't want their lil baby boy back? Aw."

"Fuck you!" he growled back. "Shouldn't you be making out with your girlfriend?"

"It's just that sometimes Mr Automobile needs to cease for he's running out of gas, if you know what I mean. Even it's a Lamborghini. – Since when do you do that?"

Alex followed his eyes to his hand, which was holding a cigarette. He shrugged. "Dunno. Something inside of me just said 'get some' and so I did."

"From the way you inhale I would tell it's not the first time", the jock commented as Alex took a deep pull, exhaling almost no smoke. 

"You know that this can kill you?"

Alex yawned. "I'm not even going to deign this with an answer. I just thought it might …." 'help me remember something' he had wanted to say, but realized that it sounded a bit weird and he wasn't in the mood to get pissed by Carter's comments.

"So what about your parents now?" Kincaid repeated impatiently for he hated to ask questions twice.

"They", Alex began, but then cut off and looked at the table.

"You are not going to cry now, will you?" Carter mocked, but Alex just gave him the middle finger, taking a deep breath and stubbing his cigarette in the ashtray. 

"Tell me. Tell me what you are really here for."

_*The _original_ Mr Automobile sentence actually belongs to DHARKE PRODUCTIONS. And I should go and  change my 'genre' to 'drama' right now.*_


	9. Chapter Eight

_*THANX TO _DHARKE_ – EXTRA HUG (forgive me that one, no disrespecting okay, sweetie?:o) ) PCWs – will we eva get rid of them? - Gave Billy lotsa sweets; Alex stole half of them though. No peach diet for him …. Hate my Alex? HATE MY ALEX?? Loool – I'd truly be uncertain if u didn't – then I'd have to rewrite everything, ;oP Smacking his head 'gainst the wall for a while, huh? See what I can do n make it 'beavable', lol _

_And FAILLE: of course any kind of review is welcome. The only thing is: if someone criticises another one's style, spelt, 'alphabetical method' as well as his/her grammar – this person should be quite perfect in it him/herself. As for u; u don't seem to know many punctuation marks – as well as u make quite a lot mistakes urself. This is no offence either. I know that I am not perfect (and surely make a lot of mistakes as well as I use a lot of strange abbreviations some might consider as severe mistakes) but as I said in my bio; since English is not my mother tongue and I've never been close to any English speaking country or state – maybe you can forgive me. I will keep on posting in it -  don't read it if it bores you to death – I didn't know it was _that_ bad though.* _

**_Chapter8_**

Billy snored happily, now and then sighing in his dream. Alex wasn't keen on finding out what it was about. He was suffering from a severe headache, part of it still related to the accident, another to all the things that had happened today. It had been a little bit too much so he was thankful for still of the night, allowing him to think it all over.

_His parents._ They had left since he had refused to see them again. Matt had tried to talk to him about it but Alex had rejected for he thought him to be the reason he was still here and so the doctor had finally let him alone.

_Carter._ His mind was still spinning, trying to find a meaning in all of this. More or less patiently, the jock had told him everything again, beginning with the day they all got to the airport for their trip to Paris, not failing to add lots of accusations and sarcastic sideswipes. Due to his information the real misfortune had started short after the crash. Everyone had tried to deal with the situation somehow. The FBI – which had sent two agents to question them right after the accident – had examined them two more times, still without any results. The only thing they thought to know for sure was that Alex somehow was responsible for the incident, thought they could not prove anything against him. Of course they didn't believe in the premonition that had caused him and the others to get off the plane – more or less voluntarily.

His next premonition had taken place after the day of the commemoration at their old school. Tod, his best friend – whom he hadn't seen during the 39 days period for his father, desperate over this other son George's death, had denied Tod to meet his mate – had held the speech. The same night Alex had been given a hint foreshadowing his death, but when he arrived at Tod's house, it had already been too late. Due to the official version the boy had strangled himself with a clothesline in the bathroom, but Alex never believed that. Carter hadn't been there himself, he just depended on Clear's information and what he had read in the newspaper or seen in the news. The little facts that had not been falsified. 

That was when the nightmares had started. Of course all of them had a lack of sleep, based on the shock they had gone through but it was nothing compared to what happened afterwards. What was still happening.

To make things even weirder – they couldn't remember anything. They would just wake up every night, scared to death, bathed in perspiration, sometimes finding unexplainable wounds on their bodies. After a while it worsened that much that as a result they didn't even dare to fall asleep at all, doing anything to stay awake.

Tod's death had been sort of the dot on the I, the icing on a cake made of madness.

Their parents had gone totally crazy about their strange behaviour, but after Tod's so-called suicide it had even increased. It had been like a mass hysteria. One after the other had been admitted to an institution. Like him. Obviously he had been at more than one. Stoneybrook had been the first one, but out of some reason he had left. Next stop; Price. He somehow must have managed to escape, just to run into a fucking car and get back to alibi-prison. 

The only one who actually didn't seem to belong to their 'group' was Larry. Though he was here out of the same reason. 

_Clear._ As for him she was the weirdest part. He sort of had a girlfriend. Geez, she was a pretty girl. He had sex with. Obviously not too bad. He considered it to be the only good thing that had happened to him within the last time.

Billy just let out another happy sigh and gradually it started to annoy him. 

First because of the sound.

Second because of the constant repetition.

Third because of Billy being able to sleep.

Fourth because of obviously having a pleasurable dream.

Fifth because he started to mumble incoherent words, his breath going faster.

Alex sent a desperate look heavenwards; he was not willing to sit here, being forced to listen to Billy having a wet dream. 

He reached for one of the thick mags beside him, glancing over to the other boy's body underneath the covers. For some wonderful peaceful moments he was quiet. Alex sighed and opened the mag and tried to focus on an article about some new special technology. Hell, what was Billy reading? This was deadly boring. He flipped through it as suddenly some sheets dropped to the ground. Bending forward to pick them up it was revealed that it was an entire mag itself. Alex suppressed laughter as he took a closer look at it. A teenage boy's second best friend – the _Playboy_. He sent a smirk towards Billy, looking down at the mag, then back to him again, raising an eyebrow. Something wasn't right. He was surely thankful for the silence, but something had caught his attention. It took him a few seconds to realize what it was. Billy was lying a bit too still; he wasn't even breathing. 

Alex jumped from his seat and ran towards the bed. A thin red line ran out of Billy's mouth. 

"_What the_- Billy?? _Billy_?? Fucking wake up!!"

Alex started to shake him and slapping his face and was almost at the door to get help as he heard Billy getting up with a moan. Swaying back and forth he tried to stand, but Alex just got to him in time to prevent him from collapsing on the floor. Cautiously he helped him to sit on the bed again. 

"Billy listen, I will just be away for a second or –" his eyes went to the alarm button at the wall in front of them. 

"NO!" Billy grabbed his arm and shook his head, then fell back onto the mattress for he got dizzy. "Don't. Please – don't."

"You scared the fucking hell outta me, man! Fuck, you are bleeding-"

"I get nosebleeds easily, no big thing", Billy replied weakly.

"Billy, it's not your –" he glanced at his face, realizing that Billy's nose was truly bleeding, "not _only_ your nose that's bleeding." He stuffed some pillows behind his back to make him sit in a more straight position so he wouldn't swallow all the blood. "Just lemme go n get one of the nurses – or Max if he's in the night shift-"

"Alex, believe me, I'm okay, there's nothing they can do. If you tell anyone what has happened I will be snowed with tranquilizers until I puke. Or die. I've been through all of that long enough to know."

"Okay, I'm no doctor, but as far as I know blood coming out your mouth could mean your lungs-"

"Relax – I just bit into my cheek somewhere on the inside, I can feel it with my tongue. That's all."

"So that shock made you stop breathing as well, huh?" 

"What?"

"Breathing. You weren't breathing for a moment – hell, I thought you just died in your sleep-" he cut off. 

"That was no really good comparison – what?"

Billy had started to palpate his chest and abdomen, wincing now and then. Slowly lifting his pyjama jacket, he revealed lots of bruises on his skin. 

"What the fuck?!" was all Alex managed to say, while Billy just lay back again, a sad, resigned expression on his face.

_*Aw, dat was lame, wasn't it? Sorry, I promise to write a better one next time. Hell, this is becoming a _book_ if I keep on writing that slowly.*_


End file.
